Identities in progress. Mimicry and mascerade in Die Verlobung in St. Domingo by Heinrich von Kleist
Journal Name:
- İstanbul Üniversitesi Alman Dili ve Edebiyatı Dergisi
| Author Name | University of Author |
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Abstract (2. Language):
The term “mestizo” for Toni in Kleist’s novella is a reference to the fundamental
uncertainty of the categorization of ethnic affiliation, as this term refers to the hybrid
identities inscribed , and the concept of hybridity indicates the confusion of the
racial affiliation categories . „Mestizo” labeled Toni’s multiple identities as hybrid
identity within the colonial conflict, however, it is an issue of being either black or
white, and he is so adjusted. Toni endangers herself with the masquerade, and needs
to control the situation through multiple anti-mimicry and allay the suspicions of
her mother about the daughter‘s ethnic loyalty. The novella by Kleist Die Verlobung
in St. Domingo embodies a large number of oscillating attribution practices in Toni’s
character, in fact her own strange, conscious, unconscious provenance that are
locatable between rebellion and submission in an intermediate space, a third space
in the sense of H. Bhabbas. For Bhabha, mimicry has a double structure within a colonial
domination discourse, which gives the possibility of a critical appropriation
by colonial dominated subjects. Babekan took aim with her wiles and mimicry to
deliver Gustav as a representative of the colonial order, the newly installed Law of
the rebellious former slaves. However, Toni’s anti-mimicry wants to save Gustav’s
from the death sentence. In this novella race, sex, and love are portrayed during
the time of colonialism. Kleist reveals the symbolic purpose of fore-and surnames,
body language, as well as the state of the in between and the hybridity of the colonized
figures in his novella. Kleist analyzes the categories of difference caused
by race, class, ethnicity, as well as processes of isolation, mimicry and mascerade.
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